Daily Archives: February 6, 2012

I discovered this great artist by accident – as we so often do. I was on a Bill Laswell search, another very seminal creative musician who had employed so many of my favorites – from Karsh Kale and Pharoh Sanders to Lilly Haydn and Sonny Sharrock.

The second video will be Amina playing with Bill and with Lilly Haydn and Kale – it remains one of my all time favorite musical videos.

Amina spent long years with The Art Ensemble Of Chicago, breakthrough jazz artists of cutting edge style who love playing with all sorts of limits and busting through those. She very much belonged with these amazing musicians, fitting in perfectly with her piano and, most particularly, with her organ abilities. I honestly believe she maximized what the Hammond Organ can do in the 2nd video. Stunning.

First, plain beauty on piano and an innocent rendition of blues without words – but wow……….a gorgeous voice. It’s long – Amina does not conform to commercial demands that I can see, but one can easily come back and finish it easily. It stays pretty. 😉